Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Revised and updated from a
workshop I did several years ago, this post is all about using your characters
to make your love scenes unique and intricate to your story. It has been posted
in several parts over the last few months. If you’re a writer, this may help
inspire you to write some of the most difficult scenes in your book: your
sensual encounters. If you’re a reader, you will get lots of sneak peeks into
the Relics of Merlin series, which is being re-released by Sourcebooks over the
next few years.

The Relics of Merlin series
of books are whimsical romances set in a magical Victorian London of sexy
shape-shifters, enchanted tea, wicked spells and loose corsets. Since I’ll be
using excerpts from several of the books in the series, I thought it might be
helpful to have a quick overview of each:

Enchanting the Lady:In a world where magic rules everything, two
misfits--Felicity Seymore, a Victorian beauty unable to perform even the
simplest spell, and Sir Terence Blackwell, a were-lion searching for Merlin's
relics--form a passionate alliance.

Double Enchantment:When Lady Jasmina accidentally creates a
double of herself using a relic, the mix-up brings her real self into a
compromising position with sexy were-stallion, Sir Sterling Thorn.

Enchanting the Beast: In the third book of the Relics of Merlin series,
ghost-hunter Philomena Radcliff comes to Grimspell castle to rid the residence
of spirits, but she finds most haunting of all a reclusive were-wolf suspected
of murder.

Everlasting Enchantment: In this brand-new fourth book, Sir Gareth
Solimere has been trapped inside of one of Merlin’s relics for centuries, and
only true love will set him free. But when were-panther Lady Millicent Pantere
steals the relic, will she be his salvation or his doom?

So why am I doing a post on
(gasp) sex scenes? Because several friends of mine said it was the hardest
thing for them to write. Since they are my favorite part of the book to write,
I thought I’d share how I do it and hopefully it will be helpful to others.
Since I always seem to learn better by example, I’ll be giving examples from
all my books to show how my love scenes are a development of my characters,
plot and setting. I’m sure there are many other ways to develop a love scene,
so let this be an inspiration and not a rule. If you’ve read any of my other
posts on writing, you know my favorite motto is: there are no rules in writing,
just guidelines.

(Read my previous posts on
this subject by searching for the title in the LABELS or CATEGORIES in the far
right sidebar.)

THREE: USING YOUR CHARACTERS’
GOALS

The following excerpt is
taken from the same scene I used from Enchanting the Lady for using a character’s
flaws.In this part, Felicity has been
covering her nervousness with speech, and Terence takes advantage of it to
pursue his own goal—to find the magical relic by discovering Felicity’s
involvement with it:

“So, you like to talk?”His voice had gentled to a purr.“All right, we’ll talk.Had any bad dreams lately?”He started at the buttons on his shirt,
slowly releasing them one at a time.

Felicity’s head spun.Tonight of all nights he had to ask her about
her dreams?“No, not since the one I had
at Fairview Manor.Why?”

“It got you that time, didn’t it?What was it, a fog of black, a slimy monster,
a mist of knives?”He stripped off his
shirt and let it fall to the floor.His
skin gleamed gold in the candlelight, the hairs of his chest made a pattern
that sharpened to a point near the top of his trousers.

So Terence is intent on
making love to Felicity but at the same time he’s still pursuing his goal:
finding the relic. Consider how your character’s goals can lead you through
their love scene or create one for you.This next excerpt is from Double Enchantment. At this point in the
story, Sterling’s
goal is obvious:

Frenzy gripped him and he rocked her up and down
against his groin, pulled away and then plunged in again, seeking that
threshold of pleasure that only Lady Jasmina could give him. And when it came
he groaned with the force of it, half-aware that her own release shook her body
in union with his.

“Let go,” he finally rasped. Jasmina tore her
cramped fingers from the headboard and he gathered her into his arms, her legs
still wrapped around him, his shaft still inside her as she sat on his lap. He
kissed the hair away from her face and stroked her back. He couldn’t afford to
show her any mercy. He would have her promises before she came back to earth.
“You are mine now.”

“I know.”

“I will tell your father that we are to be
married.”

So think about what your
character wants.It will probably change
throughout your book (although their primary goal might not) and each new goal
can lead you to a new, unique love scene. Consider what your character
wants.Can the H/H provide it for
them?Can you use the love scene to
reflect their individual goals?

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Lord of Illusion. By Kathryne Kennedy. 2012. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paper, $7.99 (9781402236549).
In
her superb third fantasy-steeped romantic-suspense novel in the Elven
Lords series, Kennedy follows outcast Drystan as he searches for the
rainbow-eyed girl of his visions and finds enslaved Camille.